flooding empty lakes
by emilyforprez
Summary: colonel matthews fumbles blindly for a pulse.


**A/N: **omg i haven't written quick in forever and this is actually from like last year i just forgot to put it on here lol here sorry bye what's your dick like homie what are you into sorry okay here

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><p>Someone's shaking him awake but the voice is very far away.<p>

"Sergeant!" The voice comes to him in a bit of a storm. He numbly nods response. "Sergeant, you have to get up."

He blinks slowly up at the sky. Planes swarm the area like flies on a dead carcass, ready to pick them off one-by-one. "I'm up," he mumbles vaguely.

There are rough hands on his shoulders. "We can't afford to lose you."

He nods again at that. There's blood pooling on the ground beside him. His blood, he realizes, and he wants to laugh. "They really fucked me up, didn't they, Colonel?"

Colonel Matthews seems to give up then. He slumps helplessly to Puck's side, raising his eyes to the sky. "Fucked you up big," he whispers, and that's when it kind of dawns on him, that he's going to die out here.

"I've got a wife back home, Matthews," he says, as if this will help anything. "She's a goddamn bitch but she's beautiful."

Colonel nods slowly.

Puck gives a wrenched smile. Already, the battle, the war, is far away, and he's drifting towards that light on the horizon. "Don't let her worry 'bout me," he tells him, closing his eyes. "Don't let me be another fucking statistic, okay?"

There's an answer, but he's too far away to hear it.

…

"I don't want you to go," she says stubbornly.

"I've been called to duty. It's not my fault —"

She drops the plate she had been carrying and lets it shatter on the floor. "It _is_ your fault for enrolling in the first place."

Puck sours a little at that. "But it's too late now." He holds up his hands as a treason, and she stares at him until he realizes she's crying.

"Don't die out there," she tells him with a strange look on her face, as if she is already seeing his death on the battlefield. "I'll never forgive you for it, for as long as I live, if you were to die out there."

…

"What do you want?" he asks her bemusedly, as she twirls in front of him with her new shiny ring that matches her glowing eyes.

She looks at him. "A house," she declares. "A nice house. It doesn't have to be big, but it has to be nice. And there has to be a backyard."

He shakes his head with a smile. "Okay. Whatever you want."

"And kids," she announces. "I want at least two. One boy and one girl. I want the boy to be older, so he can protect her, when we can't."

"Okay," he whispers, still watching her, like he can't understand how she agreed to marry him. "I'll make that happen."

She smiles. "And I want to grow old. But before we do, I want to travel the world."

Puck wraps his arms around Quinn's waist, still shaking his head. He can't understand how they got here, but she's looking at him like he's her whole world, and he's terrified. "Where do you want to go, then?"

She presses her forehead against his. "Paris. Berlin. I want to study history in France. I want to see everything before I die."

"Okay. I can do that."

…

Their first baby is a miscarriage. He holds her in the bathroom as she crumples to the ground.

Kind of like he's trying to remember why God hates them, or why they can't give them a second chance. God punishes those who forget. Forgetting about Beth was their first mistake. Quinn's convinced it's some sort of repent.

"Why else would He do it?" she cries, clutching his shirt for dear life. "Why else?"

"I don't know," he whispers. "I'm not God."

…

"Promise me something," she whispers as he's heading out the door, grabbing onto his uniform with one hand.

He looks at her. In her eyes, he sees the end of the world. She's been crying, but that's not the point. "Anything," he tells her.

She gives him a look like this is the last time she'll ever see him. He wants to tell her that he'll come back unscathed. He'll come back for her. It's all he's ever known. "Promise me you'll write me. Every day that you can, write me. Tell me you love me even if you forget. And tell me you're okay, even if you're not."

He doesn't have much time to stay. "I'll write you everyday," he says. "And the day that the letters stop coming —"

He doesn't need to finish the sentence. She cocks her head, and in the midst of her despair, she's smiling. "I'll wait for you forever."

"I'll come back," he finds himself saying.

…

"Sergeant?"

Colonel Matthews fumbles blindly for a pulse.


End file.
